


You Make Me Wanna Love Again

by lmontyy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Drabble, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Guitars, Happy Ending, Lesbian Character, Love, TLOU, The Last of Us - Freeform, Useless Lesbians, ellie x dina, the last of us part ii, tlou 2, tlou part ii
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25150330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmontyy/pseuds/lmontyy
Summary: Ellie promised Dina that she would sing her one of her original works of music. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually, she did.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 177





	You Make Me Wanna Love Again

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a bit of a drabble from a tumblr request!  
> I also had to basically write a song for this... but it was fun! hope you enjoy <3

“Oh, come on, you fucking promised,” Dina’s whiny voice had Ellie’s eyes rolling in her head. The guitar on her lap sat comfortably on her knees, an arm rested over the body. She gave Dina an unamused look when the girl childishly stuck her lip out to further her point.

“Hey, I didn’t promise shit,” Ellie countered, brows furrowing at the shorter girl, but her grin betrayed her. “Stop whining like a baby, you’ve heard me play plenty of times.”

Dina scoffed with vexation, a quick roll of her eyes before they were burning into Ellie’s face again. “Yeah, but never one _you_ wrote. It’s always some cheesy 80’s song you and Joel listen to in your free time.”

“Don’t rag on the 80’s.”

“Deal, but you gotta sing for me,” Dina tried negotiating her way out of a lot, but this one was far more amusing than any other predicament she found herself in.

“Absolutely not.”

A long groan echoed in the darkening sky. The two of them were cozied up under one of the Jackson forest trees, their little getaway cabin just meters away. The cabin itself was no more than a couple of miles or so outside of Jackson, and the two girls decided that, like many others in the community, to just take some time off, with their schedules being pretty clear the next few days. The frozen lake was just nearby – they could see it from where they were sitting – and the little lanterns placed around the area alongside the light of the campfire rendered the atmosphere around them peaceful, warm, and quiet. Just the feeling she got every time she thought of Dina. It felt perfect.

_Maybe I should… What does it hurt, anyway? She wants to hear it._ Ellie’s thoughts tried battling that undying sense of anxiety and insecurity she felt every time she came around Dina. Everything she did, she was scared Dina would judge her for. And, of course, she knew her best friend. She knew her girlfriend. She knew she’d never judge her. And despite having had been together for many days and weeks, it never changed the jittery, nervous feeling she got being around Dina. She felt like the same teenager with a crush on her best friend.

“Why do you hate me?” Dina’s exaggerated; whiny tone had Ellie laughing softly.

“Why are _you_ so dramatic?”

“You know, you can’t just tell me you write new music and expect me _not_ to want to hear it,” she pouted, brows furrowed in a frustrated manner. “You can’t just _tease me with it.”_

Ellie laughed again, this time more playfully condescending. “Oh, yes I can. And I will.”

“Don’t make me break into your house and go through your shit, Williams,” Dina threatened, face marked with merriment. “Don’t make me go in there and find the notebook you’re always writing in, because I guarantee, it’s right in there.”

“You’d be right,” Ellie couldn’t help herself. Her grin only grew as she watched the mounting aggravation on her girlfriend’s face.

“You’re the worst, you know that?” Dina huffed, turning her head stubbornly away from Ellie, trying to coax her into being affectionate and giving into her whiny demands. “I’m so finding that notebook when we get back.”

Suddenly, a dastardly idea struck Ellie’s mind. “Okay, you know what? I’ll sing for you.”

“Really?” Every feature in Dina’s face came alive in that moment but froze as Ellie cut her off immediately after.

_“If…_ you go lake diving with me tomorrow morning.”

“Ellie, the fucking lake is frozen over…” Her voice trailed off in disbelief at Ellie’s request.

“And?”

Dina’s face twisted with outraged confusion. “Are you fucking crazy?” She threw a glance back in the lake’s direction. “It’s the middle of the winter, Ellie!”

_“And?”_ Ellie cocked her head forward. “Jesse, Pete, and I did it last year. We threw ourselves in the lake in February, remember?”

“Yeah, I do,” Dina glared at her. “I thought Jesse came home with frostbite that day.”

“Okay, well,” She shrugged innocently. “Ask either of them. They’ll tell you how much fun it was. We used the rope over on the little cliff and launched ourselves.”

It was one of her fonder memories with her friends that past year. They came home soaked and completely frozen, but God, if she didn’t have fun throwing Jesse over the side of the hill and dead into the freezing water. Despite the cold, it was almost as fun as sledding. Pete even brought some of his friends later on that month to do the same thing.

With a long moment’s hesitation, Dina finally gave in with a cold sigh. “Alright, you know what? Fine. I’ll go throw myself into a freezing lake for you if that means you’ll sing for me.”

“Aw, well aren’t you sweet?” Ellie teased, leaning forward to tap their noses together, prompting Dina to roll her eyes, but Ellie knew she always appreciated her gestures of affection.

“Shut up.”

“Well, if you want me to shut up, how am I supposed to sing?”

“Oh, my God, just do it,” Dina insisted impatiently, turning her whole body on the log to watch with rapt attention as Ellie got her guitar situated better in her lap.

Ellie didn’t even have to think of what song she wanted to sing – she already knew which one. In the many nights that passed over months of longing and picturing her, Ellie found herself scribbling down the many thoughts that ravaged her mind about Dina. Many thoughts of her affections, her need to be near her, her want to call the girl hers. She would stay up for hours putting chord progressions together, forming thoughts into sentences and sentences into lyrics that repeated like a broken record in her mind, reminding her of the pain and yearning she felt for so long.

She sincerely hoped Dina would pick up on it.

Taking a deep breath, she let her fingers fall on the strings gently before she started plucking softly and sweetly.

_How should I try and look on past you?_

_I don’t know if my eyes could._

_How should I try and live without you?_

_I don’t think I should._

Ellie tried her best not to look up. She was so petrified of making eye contact with her. God, what if she was laughing? What if she hated it? She couldn’t even bear the thought. She felt the regret surging her as soon as she even started. Her eyes just stayed glued to the fretboard, her palms watering at the pores.

_Come tomorrow, let the sun come in,_

_Or wait until tomorrow to set me up for more._

_All you got to do babe is close your eyes,_

_I wanna love you forever._

_Years of nothing and nothing again,_

_But, oh, you make me wanna love again._

She felt her breath shaking as the chorus ended, and her fingers took over to pluck at the strings, forming the same chords but in different patterns, a different order of strings each time. There was such a weight of anxiety on her chest – she refused to even glance upward, still. Her eyes shut gently as she let the resonance of each chord consume her, ignoring the deafening silence from the girl in front of her.

_It may be the way you love me,_

_Or maybe I’m just afraid._

_Someday when my time on Earth is over,_

_I hope maybe you will still love me the same._

_Come tomorrow, let the sun come in,_

_Or wait until tomorrow to set me up for more._

_All you got to do babe is close your eyes,_

_I wanna love you forever._

_Years of nothing and nothing again,_

_But, oh, you make me wanna love again._

The end of the song slowly approached, the last chorus creeping up and it made Ellie’s heart race. She would have to face her then. She almost wished that she could continue playing and dragging it out to avoid having to make the slightest eye contact with Dina.

All the times she’d ever sang in front of her, this had to be the worst one. She played the song itself flawlessly – not a single note out of place. But her anxiety spiked significantly the second she started playing. Her heart pounded so hard against her chest and ribs that she prayed Dina couldn’t hear.

_Oh, you make me wanna love again._

_Oh, you make me wanna love again._

_All these nights I stay up,_

_You’re stuck in my head and you won’t get out,_

_But, oh, how you make me wanna love again._

Playing out the last chord, she kept her eyes closed a few moments even as the chord faded off into the air. Opening her eyes, she took a deep, shaky breath, and was met with the face of Dina, her jaw dropped, and her eyes glassed over. Her heart didn’t cease its frenzy until Dina finally spoke.

“That was…” Dina sighed with disbelief and fascination, hands shooting up to wipe the tears that had _just_ slipped out, catching them with a sniffle. “Wow…”

Ellie’s breath shook. “Was it… was it okay?” She grabbed the neck of the guitar harder, her mind racing and praying that she didn’t hate it. Even with her tears and her jaw that sat in disbelief, she still worried immensely that it wasn’t as good as she’d thought it was.

“Okay?” Dina’s eyebrows raised incredulously at Ellie’s question. “Are you kidding? Ellie, that was… the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”

Ellie felt her heart shatter into a thousand pieces at the touching words from her girlfriend in front of her. _Thank God._ _I wonder if she picked up on the lyrics…_

“I, uh… I wrote that last year…” Ellie admitted, her voice still shaking with anxiety. “I wrote it that night that we went to the spring festival together… Remember, when we sat under the lights… You were, uh… you were still with Jesse, but…”

“Ellie…”

Her eyes had been averted down, but when she looked up, she barely had time to process the words before she was met with Dina’s lips pressing sweetly and frantically against hers. It took a moment for Ellie to process it, but when she did, she was urgently kissing back. Dina’s hand found a freckled cheek and Ellie melted into her touch.

After they pulled away, Dina barely had a chance to breathe before Ellie was grabbing her face with both hands, sweeping her back in. Their lips pressed together again and again, getting messier with each kiss.

“I love you,” Dina breathed out between kisses, holding Ellie’s face back for one moment to talk before diving back in desperately. After another kiss, she pulled her face back again, holding it. “I love you so much.”

Ellie’s heart melted in her chest like never before. She felt the tightness in her throat squeezing from the sheer amount of emotion that swept her. God, how she loved this girl.

When they broke away, all they did was look at one another, taking in the sight of each other under the lights of the lanterns and the fire, the light reflecting off each other’s dark eyes as they took in the sight of the other.

Neither of them spoke – they just held each other’s faces. Everything felt perfect. It was Ellie who interrupted.

“Oh, and, by the way, my notebook was inside the cabin this whole time. It’s in the kitchen.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!  
> you can follow me on tumblr at @lmontyy or lmontyy.tumblr.com to find my blog and to interact with me more!


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